Nine Inch Nails in Las Vegas – Final show of the tour!

Nine Inch Nails was playing the final show of their Lights In The Sky tour in Las Vegas Saturday night. Thursday I decided to go, Friday I booked my flight, and Saturday morning I left Vancouver. Since turning 21 seven years ago, I have made the trip to Sin City every year except for last year, with the last time being 2006 for the Pearl Jam show. So I was returning and this time I booked a room at the new Planet Hollywood Hotel, which was also the venue for the show. But what may seem like a last minute decision was really a few months in the making.

When the band announced this final leg of the tour, ending in Vegas really stood out to me and I put the date in the back on my mind. After seeing the show and this tour in Victoria last week, my interest in the Vegas show peaked again. Then Trent Reznor announced that this would be the final show for the band on this large of a scale, and that the band was dismantling with some members leaving. I had to get it all in while I could, especially with the spectacle of visuals that this tour has displayed. And with drummer Josh Freese playing his final show with the band, maybe there was hope of Perfect Drug being played as his last song.

Well, Perfect Drug was not played again and may never ever be played live and this was not the epic show that I had expected, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Like my Pearl Jam touring ways, through the bands website, I was able find a good spare ticket and someone to share a hotel room with. This made the trip much more affordable and enjoyable at the same time. The show was a little shorter than the one in Victoria, but they seemed to have more energy during the performance.   However, with this being the only seated show on the tour, the energy of the audience was lacking and most people were standing still for the majority of the show. The venue was small, holding just under 8000 capacity, but the acoustics of the sound was amazing to go along with the best visual display I have ever seen at a concert.

An added bonus for the show was that there were close to 20 video cameras in the crowd, filming for a fan made dvd of the show. This was in response to a failed attempted by the band’s management to film a planned 3 dimensional dvd for the tour. Trent heard about this organized fan project, and allowed cameras of all types into the shows.   I tried to participate, but was more interested in enjoying the show. The parts of the show that I did capture on video is shown down below.

The highlight of the night had to have been Reptile, which the band just about lost it on, Closer with The Only Time Breakdown, and The Great Destroyer.

If this was the final time I get to see NIN, it was a great way to go out!

Here is the set list.

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March Of The Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Closer [The Only Time Breakdown]
Gave Up
Corona Radiata
The Warning
The Great Destroyer
Ghosts 21
Ghosts 28
Ghosts 19
Piggy [Ghosts]
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
Ghosts 31
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

Echoplex
Reptile
The Good Soldier
Hurt
In This Twilight